Socio-economic caste census data to be released by Sept

Nearly a year and a half after its first deadline,the Socio Economic Caste Census (SECC) is now nearing completion with the enumeration process

Nearly a year and a half after its first deadline,the Socio Economic Caste Census (SECC) is now nearing completion with the enumeration process over and the final census data likely to be out in three months.

The enumeration has been completed in all states and it is now in the claims and objections stage. Gram sabhas will have 82 days for this and the government hopes the list would be ready by early September, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh said.

The SECC,which the Ministry for Rural Development is executing through state governments,will rank households based on their socio-economic status to prepare a Below Poverty Line (BPL) list while gathering information on the caste-wise breakup of the population in the country and providing the socio-economic profile of various castes. The census,launched in June 2011,was initially supposed to be completed by December 2011 but the deadline was later informally shifted to June 2012. There are a total of over 24 lakh enumeration blocks in the country with roughly 125 households in each block.

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However,it is only the census data that would be released in September and not the actual BPL list. The SECC is crucial since it will form the basis of several welfare and poverty alleviation schemes of the government including the public distribution system,the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana national health insurance scheme Indira Awaas Yojana and the ambitious Direct Benefits Transfer scheme.

The census has essentially two rounds enumeration and verification,where people can file claims and objections with respect to the draft list.